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Home depot gift card fraud

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tomaskim80

Junior Member
Recently I purchased $2000 worth of gift cards from a person for $1400 cash. I verified the balance by purchasing an item with the gift card. I have the receipt for the $2000 gift card purchase as well as the receipt showing the balance after making the purchase. I went to a home depot store couple of days later and they tell me the gift card is not in the system? I called home depot but they won't give me any information unless I bring the person who purchased the card. I have the person's cell phone and email address and tried to get in contact but no return calls. I did a track on the cell phone to get the address (to send a demand letter), but the address leads to a deserted street. Where do I go from here? I'm willing to do about anything to get part of my money back. Thanks. This happened in los angeles california.
 


Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
What did the police say when you brought this matter to their attention?


(A good lesson can be had from this: If it sounds too good to be true, it IS!)
 

Antigone*

Senior Member
Recently I purchased $2000 worth of gift cards from a person for $1400 cash. I verified the balance by purchasing an item with the gift card. I have the receipt for the $2000 gift card purchase as well as the receipt showing the balance after making the purchase. I went to a home depot store couple of days later and they tell me the gift card is not in the system? I called home depot but they won't give me any information unless I bring the person who purchased the card. I have the person's cell phone and email address and tried to get in contact but no return calls. I did a track on the cell phone to get the address (to send a demand letter), but the address leads to a deserted street. Where do I go from here? I'm willing to do about anything to get part of my money back. Thanks. This happened in los angeles california.
This kind of scam is happening more often these days. I agree with Zigner's assessment. If it seems too good, it is too good.
 

tomaskim80

Junior Member
I didn't go to the police yet. I thought taking this guy to small claims was the proper step. So do you guys recommend filing a police report? What frustrates me more is that home depot won't give me any information on these gift cards. The gift cards were purchased with a home depot credit card. For home depot to cancel those gift cards (and on the receipt it says no refund) even though they were used seems like a policy flaw.
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
I didn't go to the police yet. I thought taking this guy to small claims was the proper step. So do you guys recommend filing a police report? What frustrates me more is that home depot won't give me any information on these gift cards. The gift cards were purchased with a home depot credit card. For home depot to cancel those gift cards (and on the receipt it says no refund) even though they were used seems like a policy flaw.
They were purchased with a stolen HD card. Much different situation.
 

cyjeff

Senior Member
I didn't go to the police yet. I thought taking this guy to small claims was the proper step. So do you guys recommend filing a police report? What frustrates me more is that home depot won't give me any information on these gift cards. The gift cards were purchased with a home depot credit card. For home depot to cancel those gift cards (and on the receipt it says no refund) even though they were used seems like a policy flaw.
Let me ask you this.

When you go to court and say that you got ripped off when buying an obviously stolen gift card, what do you think will happen next?

There is no policy flaw in stopping the use of gift cards purchased using a stolen credit card.... which is, most likely, what happened.

Do you honestly think you can convince a judge that you didn't know the card was stolen or dishonest in some way?
 

tomaskim80

Junior Member
I don't believe the gift cards were stolen. According to the receipt the gift cards were purchased using a home depot credit card. He even gave me the amount that I wanted. My assumption is that he purchased the gift cards and reported them stolen/missing couple of days later. Would this not qualify for a small claims case? My frustration is that home depot won't tell me what happened to those gift cards. They tell me that the system cannot find it. If the cards were canceled I would believe that there should be traces or at best alerts in the system to raise a red flag if those "stolen" cards were used. But I truly do appreciate everyone's feedback on this. Thank you.
 

mvm062

Junior Member
Obviously call the police first. Give them any information you can get on the guy and they will do something from there. If you know his info yea small calims will work but he would have to go in. If criminally prosecuted you can get restitution and civilly he is responsible. Either way use your resources. Odds are though is that he did buy them with stolen credit cards and when the people actually whose cards he was using found out, they cancelled it therefore cancelling the cards.
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
I don't believe the gift cards were stolen. According to the receipt the gift cards were purchased using a home depot credit card. He even gave me the amount that I wanted. My assumption is that he purchased the gift cards and reported them stolen/missing couple of days later. Would this not qualify for a small claims case? My frustration is that home depot won't tell me what happened to those gift cards. They tell me that the system cannot find it. If the cards were canceled I would believe that there should be traces or at best alerts in the system to raise a red flag if those "stolen" cards were used. But I truly do appreciate everyone's feedback on this. Thank you.
The cards themselves weren't stolen. The credit card that was used to purchase them was stolen (or otherwise fraudulently obtained)
 

cyjeff

Senior Member
Fine.

Call the police.

I would recommend against having anything else to do that day.

By the way, even if you DON'T call the police, I would count on them calling YOU again.
 

TinkerBelleLuvr

Senior Member
What I can't figure out is WHY anyone would think that a stranger would want to GIVE them $600 (net on card) for any good reason? If I needed the money that was on a gift card, why not cash it out?

There's that saying that if it SOUNDS too good to be true, it probably is.
 

ebbuga97

Junior Member
Question to Zinger

I fell under very similar circumstances in metro Atlanta around that time. Did you ever get any resolution?
 

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